REVIEW: New director, but same electric Alvin Ailey

When Robert Battle took over as artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater last July – only the third person to head the company since it was founded in 1958 – the question among fans of the troupe, long beloved for its remarkably athletic and high energy performances, was: Is this going to change things?

"Revelations," Alvin Ailey's signature work, has been seen by more than 23 million people around the globe. / Photo by Andrew Eccles

Apparently not. A packed house at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Tuesday was treated to everything that has come to be expected from an AA show – virtuosic dancing, stunning physicality and the grande finale of “Revelations,” founder Alvin Ailey’s signature work about African-American cultural heritage that closes out nearly every company performance.

Which is not to say that this was an evening done by rote. Even “Revelations,” a piece that has been seen by more people than any other modern dance work in the world since its 1960 debut and which company dancers have said is, for them, “as natural as breathing,” was fresh and full-out. I’m not a person who is normally redundant – I almost never see a movie twice – but having seen “Revelations” a half dozen times, I still find it moving and full of new details on each subsequent viewing.

But the highlight for me was the briefest work of the evening, “Takademe,” a solo choreographed by Battle for his own company, Battleworks, in 1999. It has been danced by the Alvin Ailey II company for the past decade, but was only taken into the main troupe’s repertoire this year. Battle supposedly choreographed this deconstruction of Indian Kathak dance in a tiny room and Kanji Segawa performed its highly kinetic movements – to a recorded vocalization of “Speaking in Tongues II” by Sheila Chandra (imagine taking the word “Takademe” and turning it into a percussion instrument) – explosively within only a small circle center stage. It was frantic and funny and over way too soon.

The men of Alvin Ailey...my, my my. / Photo by Andrew Eccles

Also on the program was Ulysses Dove’s 1987 “Episodes,” a tension-filled, violent depiction of the power struggles within human sexual relationships. Starkly lit (by John B. Reade) with strips of white light on either diagonal in which male and female dancers in simple black outfits meet, struggle, erupt and part to a mostly piano score by legendary jazz improvisationalist Keith Jarrett, I found it edgy and engrossing and loved the ending, when all the dancers meet in the criss-cross of light at center stage with their backs to each other and, looking over their shoulders, walk slowly away.

The patron next to me, however, preferred “Memoria,” Ailey’s tribute to the life of his friend, choreographer Joyce Trisler, who died prematurely at the age of 45 in 1979. Representative of the choreographer’s early work, it was all high legged extensions à la seconde (to the side), diving arabesques and fluttering fingers – abstract, but still understandable in its obvious humanity.

By the time the opening strains of “I Been ‘Buked,” the first of the gospel and spiritual songs that define “Revelations,” was heard, the audience was primed for its evocative journey from slavery to freedom, grief to joy. No matter how many times you’ve seen it, you couldn’t help but be affected by the streaming rivers of blue silk in “Wade in the Water,” the spectacular display of sheer maleness in “Sinner Man” and the joyful fluttering of the ladies’ fans signifying gossip in “You May Run On.”

Robert Battle / Photo by Andrew Eccles

By “Rocka My Soul” we were all on our feet, rhythmically clapping to the music like the 23 million who’d seen it before us. Battle has retained the best of what he inherited from Judith Jamison, Ailey’s successor, and added a drop of his own sparkle. Amen and Hallelujah.